BOSTON -- Boston police arrested more than a dozen members of an anti-war group for disrupting ceremonies marking Veterans Day.

Holding anti-war signs, members of Veterans for Peace refused to move from the front of the podium at City Hall Plaza so services could continue, The Boston Globe reported Monday.

The group was protesting the fact that officials wouldn't allow them to carry signs opposing the war in Iraq while marching in Boston's Veterans Day parade.

"Our free speech and civil rights are being abridged here," said Vietnam veteran Nate Goldschlag, one of those standing in front of the podium. "We are veterans, too, and we should be allowed to express our opposition to this war."

Some of the protesters wore gags over their mouths, which they said symbolized the fact that they were permitted to march in the parade but not exercise their right to free speech.